Abstract
Online sexual harassment is prevalent on the Internet across multiple devices and platforms. It is perceived as equally or more distressing and harmful than the face-to-face form of bullying and harassment because of the enormous scale of online public space and the repetition and permanency of the event as a result of repeated electronic posting. The consequential harms of online sexual harassment include psychological trauma and continuing or re-emerging feelings of unsafe, distrust, and isolation. All those interconnected forms of harm breach an individual's fundamental rights to dignity, privacy, and freedom of sexual expression and autonomy, threatening gender equality in society.
Addressing the problem of online sexual harassment requires multidisciplinary efforts. This project focuses on supporting victims from the ICT perspective, with an emphasis on online reporting systems. Following the Intervention Mapping Protocol and user-centred design principle, the first stage of this research is to define the problem (what is online sexual harassment, who are the victims, what are their needs, and find pitfalls of the current reporting systems). The second stage of this research is to explore the existing solutions by doing a scoping review of the technological tools for supporting online sexual harassment victims and summarizing users' (un) satisfying experiences of using those tools. Based on the insights from the first two research stages, we plan to create a chatbot reporting assistant for victims of online sexual harassment. In the third stage of this research, we will develop the chatbot and evaluate the efficacy of this chatbot through a survey research method. In collaboration with legal experts, we will assess the ethical issues related to the chatbot.
The fourth year is essential for completing the third stage and crafting the final dissertation. We are very grateful to receive this SEP grant.
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